Make databases drool over your resume

Wackenhut employs 40,000 across the country and is the largest provider of security guards at U.S. nuclear plants.

"In my business, we marvel at technology," Goodboe says. "But it has created a frustrating administrative burden on the hiring end."

National giants such as Johnson & Johnson and Google each receive about 2,000 resumes a day and have no choice but to rely on keyword databases, artificial intelligence systems and pop-up boxes that ask job seekers how they learned about an opening.

A computer"s inability to gauge X factors, such as drive and enthusiasm, is why some businesses say they"re seeing a plunge in resume submissions. Applicants are fed up.

"They tell me they"d rather just come to a job fair or try to drop by human resources for a face-to-face meeting," says a hiring manager in West Palm Beach, Fla. "They feel sending in a resume is a huge waste of time"

Smith, founder of Smith Professional Search in Bloomfield Hills, Mich., cites another drawback to the "you"ve got to be wired to get hired" era.

"Entry-level candidates don't have many keywords in their background, and it's a huge frustration for them. They apply and apply and apply and nothing. Companies don't even respond with a Dear John-level form letter.

"We"re entering into a labor shortage, and everyone"s scrambling to brand their company in the most positive way, yet they leave prospective employees with a bad taste in their mouth."

Staffing strategist Crispin agrees that the process has become very impersonal.

"Very few companies treat prospective employees with any degree of respect," he says. "Technology doesn't replace the responsibility of the recruiter to manage the relationship with job candidates. Among the best 100 companies, only about two-thirds even acknowledge that they"ve received a resume. They most likely never knew you existed."

The best way to emerge in a newfangled world, he says, is with an old-fashioned tactic: water-cooler word of mouth.

The heaviest-weighted factor when a computer sorts resumes is employee referral, Crispin says. If you click that this is how you heard about the opening - as opposed to through HotJobs or Jobster, for instance - a box will pop up asking you the person"s name. Otherwise, include this detail in your cover letter.

Bottom line: Use your resume to knock on the door of your dream job. But take someone to lunch to get invited inside.